Intelligent Design Theory: Science or Religion?

blatham looks dang good for his age.

Would you send a rescue team you were in charge of down a disused mineshaft to rescue a little black and white Scotty dog a video of which had been aired on the main news wagging it's tail and cocking its ears in happier days.

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blatham looks dang good for his age.

Yes, he does.

Is attack on science a sign of weak faith?
On Dec. 7, the nonprofit Fordham Foundation published a report ranking South Carolina's Science Academic Standards fourth best in the nation, lauding them as "a genuine effort to define science literacy K through 12."
On Dec. 12, our Education Oversight Committee, meeting in Columbia, voted to strip four of the seven indicators from High School Standard B-5 (biological evolution), gutting the life sciences curriculum in our secondary schools, compromising the entire document.
Leading the attack on science literacy in South Carolina was Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville. Fair offered substitute wording for the four stricken indicators, emphasizing intelligent design as an alternative explanation for the diversity of life on Earth. Intelligent design essentially argues that the development of life is so complicated that it had to be designed by an intelligent force. Fair called for a "balanced panel" to consider his proposals, presumably to include an equal number of scientists and nonscientists, as though a curriculum based on National Academy of Sciences guidelines could be amended by a simple majority of lawyers and insurance salesmen.
As a scientist, such foolish arrogance does not bother me. Evolution will proceed by natural selection regardless of the opinions of the senator from Bob Jones University and his allies. In fact, I eagerly anticipate the results of his future public opinion polls regarding the atomic theory and the theory of gravity.
As a citizen and member of my local school board, however, I am deeply concerned by the efforts of Fair and his political allies to force religion into the public schools through the science curriculum. The senator denies any religious motivation. But his ally, Sherri Few, co-founder of South Carolina Parents Involved in Education, has opined that "the theory of evolution does not align with most of the faiths in our state," and that "there are other credible science theories, such as intelligent design, that have clear scientific support."
Dilution of the public school curriculum in deference to "faiths in our state" would not only violate the First Amendment freedoms upon which this country was founded, but also sully Christ's church in the process.
And in the largest sense, as a Christian, I am profoundly disturbed by intelligent design, not just in Columbia but throughout the United States. The movement is symptomatic of a terrible weakness in the faith of the church universal.
Back in the good old days, in the time of Abraham, it was quite clear that God calls His people, not the other way around. Our forefathers understood that faith is a gift of God's free grace, unconditional, unmerited (lest we should boast) and irresistible. We remembered the assurance of our Lord Jesus Christ that no one can snatch His sheep from His hand. Christians who feel the love of God have a strong faith. We are not threatened by science.
More recently, in the last 300 years or so, a Christian sect has arisen to pridefully assert that man can, of his own free will, "take Jesus as his Savior." The faith of such a Christian is necessarily weak, since he relies not on God's grace, but on personal agency. And, in fact, the adjective "personal" often appears in the religious discourse of freewill Christians, although "self-centered" is more descriptive.
The faith of freewill Christians is reinforced by their personal interpretation of Scripture and an order they personally perceive in God's creation, and threatened by modern evolutionary science, which challenges both. It is toward a constituency of freewill Christians, weak in their faith, prideful and self-centered, that Fair and his allies pander.
If you sympathize with Fair, intelligent design or any similar movement to force religion into American government or the public schools, you are a Christian of weak faith. Your personal problem does not originate from, but is directly related to, the adjective. Turn your attention elsewhere.

The movement is symptomatic of a terrible weakness in the faith of the church universal.

wande quoted-

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The movement is symptomatic of a terrible weakness in the faith of the church universal.

Yes. I agree with that.

Judge Jones is currently scheduled to deliver his opinion Tuesday 20 December. Lets see what happens.

The proper application of both the endorsement and Lemon tests to the facts of this case makes it abundantly clear that the Board's ID policy violates the Establishment Clause. In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science. We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents.

139 PAGE OPINION FROM JUDGE JONES WAS JUST DELIVERED ON ABOVE WEBSITE

The breathtaking inanity of the Board's decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial.